First Results: Test of Fifteen 50mm Lenses

Hi Raid

Well I looked for the test and I must have read the shorts directly off the card and the card is now formated so.... I sold the chrome lens today and have it packed for shipping, I guess I'm stuck! Both lenses were optically identical and the chrome version was just a bit warmer, must be the coating. I'm amazed at how sharp these old lenses are compared to my modern design SLR 50's, they are better wide open and just as good stopped down.

Tim
 
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Tim: In general, rangefinder lenses are optimized for shooting wide open.This is the main feature in which they excel over SLR prime lenses, other than the weight and size. Of course, lenses like the Canon 50mm/0.95 are neither small nor light.

As for your lost images, don't worry about it. We got the message.

Raid
 
Guess what folks, I will be soon getting as a loaner the Npkton 50mm/1.0!

I now have access to these four beautes:
1. Noctilux 50/1.0
2. Canon 50/0.95
3. Nikkor 50/1.1
4. Canon 50/1.2.


I am thrilled to get such lenses from our kind RFF members. I hope that my amateurish tests are somewhat useful to people here.

Raid
 
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NIKON KIU said:
NOT SO!!
there are Nikkor H, Nikkor S, Nikkor Q....😛 😉

😀 😀 😀 😀 🙂 😀 😀 😀

Raid, What kinda beast is a Nokton 1.0?? I am still hoping for a Noctilux 1.0😎

Kiu
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Uh oh, I'm not getting in the middle of this one! That's between you, Roland, and Kiu! 😉

-Randy
 
The Canon 50/1.2 now is the slowest lens here!
I already have quite a few recent images taken with the Canon lenses (1.2 and 0.95), and it will interesting to me to see howiamges taken by the Nikkor 50mm/1.1 and the Noctilux look like.

I know, some here will say that the results are limited in usefulness due to variations in optical qualities of older lenses, but such lenses are hard to come by, and having multiple samples is nearly impossible.

The Canon 50/0.95 came out doing very well wide open,and the Canon 50/1.2is a tested lens with excellent perfromance. Kiu's Nikkor ha snot been tested by him and Fred's Noctilux is most likely a newer lens with documented great optical performance.


For fun, I will take some photos of these four fast lenses for a visual comparison of shape and size while on a camera.


I will try to complete this weekend the Nikkor-Canon comparsions [for the time being]. I will not allow such lenses to get away without other trials.

At first,I thought that ultra fast lenses are for only meant for people who take photos in bars and low light areas, but now I see a lot of possibiities for such lenses to be used in other areas. Portraits can look really cool and special with an aperture of around 1.0~1.2. When stopped even a little down, these lenses are sharp. At least what I have seen so far with the Canon lenses shows this to be true. Just changing the aperture from 1.2 to 4.0 can give you an image that has a totally different look and flavor.

Raid
 
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NIKON KIU said:
I knew Raid got overjoyed by the NOC/NOK business!!
My wish came tru😎 😎 😎 😎 😎


Kiu
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Kiu,

Your willingness to offer a Nikkor 50/1.1 "donation" triggered the whole ultra fast lens loaners. Of course, Mark is a repeat "customer" and donor. We have also to thank Fred [fb] for his generous loans too.


Raid
 
I now have posted another roll of Ilford XP2 Super taken with the
Canon 50mm/0.95. Almost all photos were taken at 0.95. The exceptions were the target photos where the aperture is marked, plus three shots taken from the front porch. One of the brick wall in the shade was taken at f 2.8 while the other two shots taken in sunshine were taken at f 16.

I did not leave out any image from the roll. It is a good practice roll to see which percentage of shots I could get acceptably sharp at 0.95.
The photos of my wife were staged at candle light plus a small oil lamp plus a torch light pointed at the display cabinet in the background to get some bokeh testing done.

As for my first experience with the Nikkor 50/1.1 resulted in a situation that requires another roll of film to double check the results.



Please feel free to comment.

Raid

Link: http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=674636
 
Those are the candle lit shots I had hoped for. I think that someday I really have to get a 7s & the .95 lens for it; in your hands it is certainly amazing.

William
 
Thanks guys. This is my first candle light test. I was worried that the results would be horrible, but they came out nice.

After each shot I would turn the focusing barrel to out of focus and then make myself focus again for the following shot. This is like a quality control procedure for my focusing. It prevents getting back a whole roll of film with OOF images due to focusing errors. The Nikon S2 was easier to focus than the
Canon 7s.


I used three candles and one small oil lamp set a foot behind the candles.
The I placed a torch light on a chair outside the view, and I directed its beam only at one part of the cabinet to get some shimmering effects.

My wife was patient.


I also tried turning on a small light source [hidden from view] to slightly enhance the light on my wife's face. I then turned it off to see the effect. Both ways, the effect was nice. When her face was clearly side lit, then this means that light source was turned off.

I did the same thing with the Nikkor 50mm/1.1 but something does not look right there. Since I already have obtained sharp images using the Nikon S2 with the Nikkor 50mm/1.4, the "problem" with the Nikon images are not from the camera's rangefinder system.


This is one of the difficulties with having in a test using two cameras. I had to shoot two rolls of film for matched images (Canon vs. Nikon), and now I may have to do more testing just one the Nikon to see why things happened the way that they happened when used wide open.

I will not post any wide open images on the Nikkor until things are clear to me.
I feel that I owe Kiu this courtesy.


The three shots taken outside the house were very sharp. Note that there was very strong sunshine that day, and I saw plenty of hot spots that could have resulted in low contrast results, but the photo of the bird feeder and the one of our neighbors' house came out sharp.

I never used a lens hood for the posted images this time.


Raid
 
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Roland: Believe it or not, but my daughters have a lot from me. I have old photos of me to prove it. I actually was a goodlooking boy! What happend?!!!!!


Raid

"Plus, I now understand why your daughters are so cute "
 
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wlewisiii said:
Those are the candle lit shots I had hoped for. I think that someday I really have to get a 7s & the .95 lens for it; in your hands it is certainly amazing.

William
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William,

I am slowly but surely liking this lens. It opens up new possibilities for my photography. The amount of light is always sufficient for hand held photos.
The OOF effects are very nice too.

Raid
 
Pherdinand said:
Raid
Your wife is indeed EXTREMELY patient 🙂 I guess this is still to thank to you being a goodloking boy some time ago. 😉
I like the shots, by the way.
Click to expand...

Pherdinand,

What can I say ... ?
I am a lucky man. 😀

Raid
 
Pherdinand said:
Well, here's your big chance. Keep it 😀
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This would be a big surprise for the owner, wouldn't it.
One day, and if I am lucky to locate a clean and well adjusted lens like this one, I may get one. It is sharp enough for portraits. I am looking forward to trying out Fred's Noctilux 50mm/1.0 to see what differences it get.

Raid
 
I will keep the lenses until mid January. By then, hopefully the mail is less congested, plus the owners will miss their lenses.

Raid
 
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